HARTFORD -- Poor attendance among majority Democrats left the door open Wednesday to a Republican amendment that drastically rewrote a bill that would have helped researchers looking into the records of Connecticut's Civil War veterans.

"I don't believe this bill should pass," McLachlan said during the committee debate, stressing that records of patients in private hospitals are exempt from public access.

"These individuals were in a state institution, a state hospital. Perhaps they were in that hospital because they could ill afford, or their families could not afford a private facility," McLachlan said. "And because they didn't have the financial means, now their histories are public if this bill passes.

"It's a fairness issue," he said. "I think we should reconsider ways to allow researchers to their good work. I think that work can be very helpful, but it cannot be helpful if it calls into question the privacy of literally thousands of current and former state residents who had the unfortunate experience of being in a state facility versus a private facility."

Democratic Rep. Theresa W. Conroy, of Seymour, voiced support of redacting the names and then sided with Republicans for the close vote.

Under the legislation, medical records in state archives would be opened 50 years after the death of an individual. The Civil War ended in 1865 and the last surviving Union veteran died in 1956.

During a recent public hearing, a CCSU professor testified that the names of the Civil War veterans are crucial to cross-referencing them with other public records, including court documents, death records and census data.

Sen. Anthony Musto, D-Trumbull, co-chairman of the committee, voted against the amendment and defended the historians' position. He said the effects of PTSD, even as far back as 150 years, might be used to help veterans today.

"If we can't say how the diagnoses are going to be and how they affect people, then that makes it more difficult for historians to do their work," Musto said.